NHL History & News

On Saturday night two of the top teams in the NHL will meet, when the Boston Bruins travel to Vancouver to play against the Canucks. With a win on Saturday Boston will look increase its division lead over the Montreal Canadiens, which is currently four points. The Bruins will use this contest as a measuring stick to see how it fairs against the best team in the West as they have struggled against some of the better competition from the Western Conference.

For this matchup NHL Betting Odds will be available on Friday night.

As the Boston do not play again after meeting Calgary on Tuesday night, they will be well rested for this game on Saturday. As both of those special teams rank in the middle of the league in effectiveness, perhaps the extra days of practice will enable the Bruins to get their power play and penalty kill in order.

In the NHL, Vancouver on the other hand has some of the best special teams play. The Canucks, currently ranking 1st on the power play and 4th on the penalty kill; they will look to take advantage of the Bruins on the special teams when these two teams meet on Saturday.

With 3.3 goals per contest and the lowest goals against per game at 2.3, Vancouver also boasts the best goals per game average. It is easy to see why the Vancouver Canucks have the best record in the league, with all four of these facets of the game clicking.

It could be a long night for the guys from Boston as the Canucks should be able to score some goals and cruise to a victory, if the Bruins struggle to stay out of the penalty box.

This week in a game between two of the teams in the Western Conference playoff picture, the Vancouver Canucks will take on Dallas Stars. With a 37-12-9 record on the season, the Canucks are head and shoulders above the rest of the league. With a 31-20-6 record on the season, the Stars are among a large pack of teams that are within the 3rd and 10th spots in the conference.

In NHL Futures the Canucks are the favorite to win the Stanley Cup at 4-1. Dallas is at 25-1 hockey odds.

Even though the Canucks are also the best team in terms of statistics, they are not just the best team in the league in terms of record. On all fronts the Canucks have been absolutely dominant. They are also allowing fewer goals defensively than any other team as they are averaging more goals than any other team in the league.

Even though the Stars do seem to find a way to win despite not being great at any one thing, they don’t really match up with the Canucks well in any statistical category.

When the Canucks have power play opportunities in this game, the Stars will need to make sure to crack down defensively. The Stars have one of the worst penalty kill percentages in the league whereas the Canucks have the best power play offense in the league.

In this game, the Canucks will need to limit the effectiveness of Brad Richards. In both goals and assists, Richards is leading the Stars. The Canucks should easily take out the Stars if they can limit his role in the game.

With the NHL getting back into high gear after the All-Star game, NHL fans will be treated to a contents of two of the better teams in the entire league when the San Jose Sharks travel to Boston to take on the Bruins Saturday night.

NHL Odds are not yet available.

Even though San Jose is struggling in the standings right now, the Sharks still figure to be one of the favorites to win the Western Conference come playoff time.

Boston is currently third in the Eastern Conference and leads Montreal by only four points in the standings. Despite a mediocre power play that currently sits at 16th in the league, Boston continues to rely on one of the best goal tending tandems in the league to win games on a nightly basis. The offense is doing pretty well also as the Bruins average 3.0 goals per game.

After making it to the Western Conference finals last year the San Jose Sharks have been a bit of a disappointment so far this season. Struggling to find any consistency on offense and defense has really slowed the down the Sharks in the first half of the season. If San Jose wants to make another deep playoff run they will need to get things going in a hurry, especially since they are tied for 8th place in the West with two other teams.